Injuries and international duty have deprived Jurgen Klopp of eight Liverpool players for Sunday’s FA Cup third round trip to Arsenal, and an altogether more bizarre reason has lessened his scope for selection even further.
As noted by The Athletic, the recently recalled Owen Beck is ineligible for the match at the Emirates Stadium due to a one-match ban that he’s yet to serve from his loan spell at Dundee, which was cut short over the New Year’s period.
A head-scratching piece of bureaucracy means that the 21-year-old’s yellow cards in the Dees’ Scottish League Cup matches against Bonnyrigg Rose and Inverness Caledonian Thistle last July rule him out of the FA Cup clash against the Gunners, as he didn’t observe the cup suspension due to his loan club failing to progress beyond the group stage in the former competition.
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With two cup ties in four days over the coming week, and with so many players unavailable, Klopp will surely be planning on ample squad rotation for the Arsenal and Fulham games, so he’ll be frustrated not to have Beck to call upon tomorrow due to a bizarre piece of legislation and unfortunate circumstance.
It’ll also be disappointing for the 21-year-old to be deprived of the opportunity to line out against the Gunners in a game where he could’ve made a big statement to his manager if he were playing.
Therefore, it seems likely that Joe Gomez will keep his place at left-back, especially if Liverpool go with a youthful centre-back pairing of Ibrahima Konate and Jarell Quansah, with the Welsh youngster possibly coming in to the team for the Carabao Cup match on Wednesday night.
It seems mind-boggling that a couple of yellow cards from six months ago, in not just a different competition but under the jurisdiction of a different national association, would deem Beck unable to play in the FA Cup this weekend.
Hopefully he’ll get his opportunity for the Reds soon and his teammates can do the business in north London tomorrow.
There’s nothing bizarre about it. It’s a logical extension of loaning out players and being suspended for action in a cup tie which was lost. Simple logic.